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A Concise History of Birkenstock

The Birkenstock tradition of durable, comfortable footwear began in an 18th-century German village when Johann Birkenstock, registered in the village's church archives as "subject and shoemaker," began his career as a shoemaker in 1774.

Since then, generations of Johann's descendants have designed and crafted superlative footwear, thus keeping the tradition alive.

By 1897 Johann's grandson, Konrad Birkenstock, also a custom shoemaker, had designed and built a contoured shoe that mimics the contours of a healthy human foot. The new Birkenstock shoes, based on a revolutionary concept, were largely successful.

Unfortunately, within a decade cheaper, mass-produced factory-made shoes were introduced and consumer demand for Birkenstock's more expensive custom-made footwear subsequently declined.

Undaunted, Konrad rebounded. He knew his idea was a good one, so he developed a flexible, contoured arch support that could be inserted into the new factory-made shoes, making them more comfortable. Thus, the Birkenstock shoemaking operation, some 125 years old, shifted from producing custom footwear to manufacturing orthopedic shoe inserts for the mass-produced shoe market.

Over the next 50 years, Konrad worked with his son, Carl, to improve and refine their unique arch supports. A popular product, Birkenstock arch supports became known as "footbed supports" and Birkenstock registered the word "footbed" as a Birkenstock trademark.

Konrad's grandson, Karl, joined the family business in 1954. Karl, who envisioned a supremely comfortable shoe which would help prevent walking fatigue and encourage healthy walking habits, integrated his own knowledge of foot structure and foot dynamics with his grandfather's flexible, contoured arch supports to create such a shoe. In little more than a decade Karl's dream became a reality when Birkenstock introduced the Madrid, a sandal that brought unprecedented comfort to the feet of those who wore them.
Today, thanks to new footwear design concepts and a wide range of materials, Birkenstock has expanded its line of comfortable footwear to include more than 400 style/color combinations.

From inauspicious beginnings in a small village, Birkenstock has grown into a truly international company that now markets comfortable and durable sandals, clogs and shoes, of high quality, throughout much of the world.

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